On a summer night in June, TayShaun Todd, a 20-year-old, attended what was reported to be only the second party of his adult life.
Tragically, the following day, he was found dead in a pool at the house where the party took place, marking a devastating turn of events for his family.
At around 12:31 p.m. on June 18, the Metropolitan Police Department discovered Todd unresponsive in a swimming pool located in the 2600 block of Palma Vista Avenue.
Initially, police classified his death as a “possible drowning.” However, this wasn’t the first time authorities had been called to this residence.
A Metro report revealed that officers responded to a call at the same address at 8:31 p.m. the night before, due to a large party gathering.
Later that night, at 11:31 p.m., Todd’s mother, Christina Todd-Dunn, contacted the police to report that her son was missing and last seen at the party.
Feeling desperate, Todd-Dunn claimed she had repeatedly called the police, filled with frustration and anxiety.
“It took several calls, filled with begging and pleading,” she said, until officers finally arrived around 2 a.m.
Despite her pleas, they could not locate her son during that visit, which she believes highlights a lack of urgency from the police.
By the time the authorities found Todd’s body, the coroner suggested he had been in the pool for at least 12 hours, deepening the family’s anguish.
“The part that is so upsetting to me is, if the police would have got there and came when I asked them to, they could have gotten him out. He could still be alive right now,” Todd-Dunn expressed in sorrow.
The painful night began for Todd-Dunn when her younger son woke her around 11 p.m. on June 17, informing her that Todd was missing.
A friend had called to report that the party was shut down by police, but he couldn’t find Todd and suspected that Todd might not have left the party.
Realizing something was wrong, Todd-Dunn immediately drove to the house hosting the party, calling the police as she rushed to the scene.
Upon arriving, she asked a man at the home if he had seen her son, but he claimed ignorance, stating that everyone from the party had already left.
He then insisted she leave the property, heightening her distress.
Hours of anxiety and frantic searching ensued. Todd-Dunn and her friends searched the surrounding neighborhoods, visited local businesses, all while she consistently called the hospital and went to the police station in person.
It was only later on June 18 that she returned to find ambulances and police surrounding the home, and it was then she learned of her son’s tragic fate.
“I feel like the police officers failed me. They failed my son. Y’all should have done a full search if it was a pool party and I’m saying he didn’t come up out of here. Y’all should have turned the house upside down to find him,” Todd-Dunn remarked candidly.
A 911 call made by a resident at 12:29 p.m. on June 18 reported a dead body found in the pool, which the caller believed to be Todd, the missing person officers had sought the night before.
“Yesterday, they were — the police came here. They were looking for this kid. You know, they searched my backyard. We didn’t find him. And then this morning, we’re going into the pool, and I see, I see some guy just at the bottom of my pool,” the caller reported.
According to Metro’s documentation, officers had been to the residence the previous night but did not discover Todd.
In the weeks following his tragic death, Todd-Dunn has struggled with grief, finding it exceedingly difficult to sleep or eat.
“Everybody is taking it extremely hard,” she acknowledged. “If they were sad, he could tell them a joke and cheer them up. He was always the silly one. He liked to have a good time, liked for everybody to be happy.”
Todd was an aspiring student studying sports management at the College of Southern Nevada.
He was preparing to begin a new chapter as a teaching assistant at Pinecrest Academy of Nevada, a school where he had previously attended.
The loss has been profoundly felt by his family, especially by his two younger brothers, who mourn the loss of their older sibling.
“They feel like they lost their best friend, their hero,” Todd-Dunn shared, emphasizing the impact of this tragedy on their lives.
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